These are exciting times for reproductive biologists and endocrinologists. Both fields appear to be on the verge of dramatic achievements on a variety of fronts, with significant potential implications for fertility treatments, genetic disease prevention, and other areas of medicine.
Medical breakthroughs
- Mitochondrial transfer: In this cutting-edge method, mitochondria are extracted from the patient’s ovary’s oocyte cell precursors in the superficial epithelial layer and implanted into their oocytes during fertilization. In women who had suffered from poor embryo development, mitochondrial injections have been proven to improve embryo growth and aid in live births.
- COH (Controlled Ovarian Hyperstimulation): Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, or COH, is used to increase the number of oocytes available for IVF. It involves the use of oral and/or injectable medicines to stimulate ovulation in anovulatory infertile patients and superovulation in ovulatory infertile patients. COH requires several gonadotropin injections, fertility clinic visits, and transvaginal ultrasound tests, making it a time-consuming procedure.
Advances in technology
- Automated IVF Labs: Automation and miniaturization of IVF laboratories are two of the most promising technological breakthroughs that have the potential to generalize access to IVF in the near future. However, the majority of the IVF procedure is still carried out manually. By automating nearly all necessary stages in a single device, the groundbreaking new IVF lab-on-a-chip concept holds the ability to revolutionize in vitro fertilization.
- Time-lapse embryo imaging: Another groundbreaking breakthrough is time-lapse embryo imaging, which allows the continuous surveillance of embryo development without removing the embryos from the controlled environment of the incubator. This enables embryologists to choose the most healthy embryos based on their growth patterns and stages of development, which improves the choosing process and overall success rates.
Scientific advances
- Improved Culture technique: Recent advancements in multi-step culture procedures have enabled the activation, development, and in vitro maturation (IVM) of ovarian cortical tissue primordia to yield metaphase II oocytes. IVM has several advantages, including a lower risk of OHSS and polycystic ovaries, fewer medicinal expenditures, less stress, and a lesser monitoring burden. In comparison, the chances of a live birth with IVM are somewhat lower than that with IVF.
- Ovarian tissue cryopreservation: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation and IVF have increased the possibilities of sustaining fertility in prepubescent girls and adolescent women who are more prone to develop primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) after gonadotoxic treatment for cancer or other serious disorders. Before undergoing chemotherapy or any radiation treatments, women can use this technology to freeze and preserve their ovarian tissue, which contains viable eggs.
Reproductive genetics
Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT): Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) of embryos to detect chromosomal abnormalities has grown in popularity as a result of the arrival of next-generation sequencing. The use of PGT for monogenic illnesses has grown in unison with the growing popularity of infertile couple carrier screening. It offers various advantages, including enhanced embryo selection, preventing the transfer of embryos that won’t implant, fewer time-consuming procedures, lower expenses, and, finally, it has a favorable impact on psychological well-being. However, one of its key downsides is that it is an invasive process.
Conclusion
In the future, IVF research will encounter additional hurdles. The key challenges will include, how to cope with the unavoidable concerns of egg aging and female infertility, how to comprehend implantation problems and then build solutions, and how to advance male infertility treatment. To rectify these issues, it is important to accept the technological advancements that are being made available to the mass, who are suffering from infertility.
“Since its introduction in 1978, IVF has practically altered the field of infertility.While the techniques necessary to accomplish IVF were initially basic, with low pregnancy rates, major breakthroughs in IVF have been accomplished since then. Amongst them included the regulated ovarian hyperstimulation, luteal phase support, and improved culture media, followed by the discovery of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and aided hatching procedures. These advancements both enhanced the success rates of ART and increased the number of people seeking infertility treatments. Now, with even more advanced techniques available, IVF is bound to provide more successful results.” says, Dr. Narhari Malagaonkar, Chief Fertility Consultant at Progenesis IVF Fertility Center in Maharashtra.
Given the rapid scientific and technological progress of IVF and reproductive genetics, it is critical that both the public and regulatory agencies work together to develop a framework for the ethical assessment of developing technologies as the increasing use of IVF will change the way a large part of the human population reproduces. Many countries of the world are projected to see as many as 10% of all children created through IVF in the near future.